He states that as the online encyclopedia has become more popular, more and more college professors are getting concerned with its accuracy. Middlebury College plans to take their concern to the next level by forbidding students to cite it as a source in essays and other academic work.
The department plans to explain to their students that while the source is convenient, it is not always trustworthy and reliable. They do, however, recognize that it is a good place to go to lead you to good sources, but is not a good source itself.
Middlebury College came to this conclusion after seeing students cite incorrect information on essays and tests from Wikipedia. Although they are enforcing a policy not to cite Wikipedia, they are not outright banning the use of it because you can get good information on the website.
Wikipedia officials even agree that "There is no guarantee an article is 100% correct," (Jaschik, 45). This is in a large part because anybody can write their own or edit someone else's article.
Middlebury College believes that Wikipedia is an inappropriate source for two reasons. One. the accuracy is not guaranteed and there is an issue with whether it is a reliable source. Two, encyclopedias themselves are not appropriate sources for college students because at this level of learning a student is expected to cite primary sources or strong secondary sources.
What you should take out of this blog is the recognition that although Wikipedia is convenient, it is not a reliable source. In this article they discuss what goes in to making Wikipedia articles, and how the types of people who contribute greatly reflect the quality of the article.
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